No time for conclusions

Most Premier League teams have one more game to play this month (on Saturday 31st August). Already Liverpool and Manchester City head the table, and both play tomorrow (Saturday). You might like to check out the Premier League odds available regarding all the games. Spurs play Arsenal (away) on Sunday, so already it is time for the first monthly review of the season.

There is a lot of despair about Tottenham Hotspur this week among Spurs fans on social media and the various blogs, web sites and message boards. Spurs Odyssey is of course just one of these entities, and I wrote a negative report after our home defeat against Newcastle.

Mauricio Pochettino’s less than positive frame of mind demonstrated in press conferences since the pre-season has not helped us to be optimistic about the season to come.

Fans have pointed towards our form in recent games, both towards the end of last season and in our first three games to suggest a decline. We all know that we stumbled across the line to qualify for the Champions League, the draw for which has been held and gives us meetings with Bayern Munich, Olympiacos and Crvena Zvezda ( Red Star Belgrade).

Our recent league form taken over the closing stages of last season and the beginning of this one is a concern with only one win in our last six games. That was on the opening day of the season when Harry Kane’s two late goals – his only successful strikes so far – gave us a 3-1 win over Villa. These were Harry’s first goals in our new stadium, and his only goals in our first three games. Tanguy Ndombele joined the “scored on their debut for Spurs” club, and is still settling in. Ndombele had to miss the Newcastle game with a thigh strain, and it remains to be seen if he will play in the “North” London derby. Missing the poor team performance against the “Magpies” means that Tanguy is our first player of the month this season.

Giovani Lo Celso is also still finding his feet and has yet to start for us. Ryan Sessegnon has been recovering from a hamstring injury sustained pre-season with Fulham. We won’t know until Monday evening if the club has survived the European transfer window which extends beyond that of the Premier League, much to Pochettino’s discomfort. Christian Eriksen seems to be the player who has been most affected by the uncertainty over his future, although we are not aware of any firm bids having been made.

Georges-Kevin Nkoudou will feature on the squad list at the bottom of these monthly reviews for the duration of the season, having come off the bench against Villa before being sold to Besiktas. Vincent Janssen was offloaded to Monterrey in Mexico, where he has so far made a couple of substitute appearances.

Players who impressed in the pre-season such as Japhet Tanganga, Jack Roles, Troy Parrott and Harvey White have been given squad numbers. Roles has gone out on loan to Cambridge United, for whom he has already made two starts and one substitute appearance. He was in the side beaten 6-0 at Swansea in Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup.

George Marsh has gone on loan to Leyton Orient, whilst Anthony Georgiou is with Ipswich, and has made two substitute appearances so far. Both Marsh and Georgiou have squad numbers.

We have other players out on loan of course, the most prominent of whom is Jack Clarke, who went back to Leeds after his signing for Spurs. Cameron Carter-Vickers is at Stoke (not a happy place to be at present). Fit again Luke Amos has a season-long term with QPR and Kazaiah Sterling is at Doncaster.

VAR has to have a mention, having been introduced to Premier League games this season. We were once again beneficiaries in the Manchester Citygame, and there will be times, such as the Harry Kane penalty appeal in the Newcastle game when we do not come out of the VAR equation so well. It is, of course, too early for conclusions to be made about our chances this season, and we must all hope we are in a more positive frame of mind after the Arsenal game, and the closure of that European transfer window.

· Review the 2019-20 Premier League season here

Don't forget to check out the players' current figures re. appearances, cards, goals scored and accumulated ratings to date at the bottom of this page.

...if you want to read reports of the matches played during this season, then links are on the Spurs Odyssey Fixtures/Reports page here. By working your way back through the previous month's figures, you can review the performances over more than 18 years!